1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a technique for inspecting a discharger of a liquid discharging apparatus.
2. Background Technology
An inkjet printer, which is one type of liquid discharging apparatus, has a plurality of dischargers for discharging ink; in each discharger, ink is stored in a cavity communicating with a nozzle, and discharged from the nozzle by driving provided by a drive element (piezoelectric element) provided within the cavity. Each drive element within the plurality of dischargers is connected by an analog switch to a shared circuit to which a drive signal is applied, and when ink is discharged from the nozzle, an analog switch corresponding to the drive element of a discharger from which the ink is discharged is switched to an ON state (conductive state), an analog switch corresponding to the drive element of a discharger from which the ink is not discharged is switched to an OFF state (non-conductive state), and a drive signal is applied to the shared circuit.
When air bubbles are present in the ink contained within the cavity of the discharger of the liquid discharging apparatus, or when the ink within the cavity thickens, there is a risk of the nozzle becoming clogged, impeding satisfactory ink discharge from the nozzle. A technique has been proposed of inspecting for clogs in a discharger nozzle on the basis of residual vibration from the driving of the drive element in the ink remaining in the cavity (for example, see Patent Citation 1). In this technique, when inspecting for nozzle clogs, after an analog switch corresponding to the drive unit of the discharger being inspected is switched to an ON state, analog switches corresponding to other drive elements are switched to an OFF state, a drive signal is applied to the shared circuit, an electric signal corresponding to the residual vibration output from the drive element of the discharger being inspected is detected, and the discharger is inspected based upon this electric signal.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2005-305992 (Patent Document 1) is an example of the related art.